Images of Women in Sons and Lovers

Abstract D.H.L awrence ‘ s response to women reflects his awareness of the fundamental power of women over men’s emotional lives1 and of strong female influence in his own society.2 This perception of female ascendancy was deepened by his close relationship with his mother and by his early contact with the women’s emancipation movement. His resentment of female domination was complicated and intensified by his relationship with Frieda Weekley. Through Frieda, he became familiar with the acceptance of matriarchal values, derived from Bachofen, of the avant-garde group die kosmische Runde.3 Through living at close quarters with Frieda’s forceful personality, his deep-seated resistance to female domination was aggravated into a particular form of taunting invective.4 He refers often to the powerful and overwhelming mother figure as the “Magna Mater. “ It is a term that he applied to Frieda with variants such as the “Queen Bee, “ and to Ursula in Women in Love. The response can also be found as the mainspring of many important relationships within his works.